Monday, September 28, 2009

So I've just released a new album, and I'm pretty dang excited about it. It's on Sleazetone Records, CD / 2LP / & digital. Get the wax & CD (which have been out for a week or two) from any decent dance record shop, and get the mp3s starting tomorrow from beatport, junodownload, amazon, iTunes, or wherever else it is that you buy mp3s from.

Anyway, to accompany that shameless little plug, I've put together a mixtape of things I made. Unreleased tunes, tunes that have been out for a while, collaborations, remixes I've done for others, remixes others have done for me, and dodgy unauthorized bootleg remixes that will probably never see the light of day. Enjoy!Chrissy Murderbot's Year of Mixtapes Week 18: Stuff Chrissy Made

Monday, September 21, 2009

So back in the 1960s you had Soul music—a terribly vague term encompassing a lot of things, but a designation that still gets used nonetheless. The industry was pretty fragmented during this pre-internet era, and pretty much every major city with a sizeable African-American population—Detroit, Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans, etc.—had a distinct local scene and sound. Philadelphia was no exception.

The Philly sound, pioneered by songwriter/producers like Thom Bell, Norman Harris, Ron Baker, Gamble & Huff, and McFadden & Whitehead, really came into its own in the mid-late 1960s, and was a marked contrast to the Motown sound that had typified the previous decade. Philly soul was more mature, more lyrically complex, less saccharine, and a lot bigger: horn sections, string sections, and even full-on orchestras took a front-and-center role in the Philly sound.

Philly continued to dominate soul music into the 1970s, giving the world acts like Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, The Delfonics, and The O'Jays. Around 1974, Philly producers started moving in a more dance-oriented direction; beefing up the kick drum in their records, focusing more on the bass line, and creating longer songs geared for the dancefloor. This was the birth of disco.

As the rest of the world moved on, inventing countless good and bad disco sub-genres, Philly kept its distinctive sound: pulsating, dancefloor-friendly records driven by big bass and lush string arrangements. This week's mixtape is a two-parter: a side of the earlier soul stuff, followed up by a good chunk of proper classic Philly disco.Chrissy Murderbot's Year of Mixtapes Week 17, Side A: Philly Soul

Monday, September 14, 2009

My buddy kyleklip (who you may remember as the dude who requested the New Jack Swing tape) asked me for a hardstep tape, so here is a hardstep tape."BUT WHAT IS THIS HARDSTEP OF WHICH YOU SPEAK?!" I hear you asking:

Well back in the early-mid 1990s you had this thing called Jungle (I know I'm going way slow but some people have catching up to do). It was a sped-up british rave subgenre revolving around heavy bass, lots of reggae & hip hop influence, and a ton of really intricate drum programming—taking a drum loop, chopping it up, and rearranging it into infinite different permutations. Super-fun and energetic, but all that variation in the drums made it a bit of a daunting dance style to the uninitiated.DJs picked up on the fact that this stuff could be tricky to dance to; by 1995 you had some people streamlining those drums to make something a little more dancefloor-friendly. They preserved the heavy bass, amped up the hip hop influence, and streamlined the classic jungle drumwork to something a little more danceable without completely homogenizing or sanitizing it (that would happen later). They called it hardstep (among other things), and it lasted from about 1995-1999. I really love this era of stuff, so when Kyle suggested the mix I couldn't resist. Here goes!Chrissy Murderbot's Year of Mixtapes Week 16: Hardstep

Monday, September 7, 2009

Here's the promised follow-up to the 1991 UK Rave tape from a few weeks back: a tape of 1991 rave classics from Belgium (with a couple of tunes from the Netherlands thrown in for good measure). Although the states invented techno and the UK invented raving, Belgium was really where Europe's electronic dance music scene as we know it first kicked off. The Belgians have a rich history of electronic dance music, starting with a big hi-NRG scene and experimental bands like Telex, then continuing on to EBM & New Beat (which I will get to later in the year—in the meantime find some more info here and here).

Anyway, suffice it to say that the Belgians were early adopters of American house & techno, and they really ran with it, creating a distinctive sound and style long before the British managed to. As in England, however, 1991-1992 were really the prime years for Belgian techno. So here's a tape!Chrissy Murderbot's Year of Mixtapes Week 15: 1991 Belgian Rave Tunes